enzymes

Pure caffeine is white. That coffee bean (really seed) that makes your coffee is brown because of roasting. The seed, before harvesting from the coffee tree, is generally green and the apparent function of caffeine in the seed acts as a natural pesticide. We don’t think of caffeine in our coffee as a pesticide but it just works that way for the seed. Insects don’t like caffeine. Ever see them drinking your coffee?

I drank coffee as a kid (and still do). I don’t remember how old I was when I started doing that but I remember adding lots of sugar and milk. Tasty. One day in college (that was a long time ago) after trying some No Doz I began to wonder if caffeine was good or bad. I did some real “research” (for me back then it was opening a book) at the library. This was before anyone had heard of an internet. I wasn’t able to decipher the chemical molecular structure but I didn’t read that caffeine was dangerous (in normal dosing). So I kept taking No Doz. I was proud that I sorta determined some background on this stuff.

There are a lot of known knowns and maybe as many unknowns about caffeine and it doesn’t affect everyone the same. Some genetic studies have found that a certain dose for some might increase nonfatal heart attacks. That would be about 3 cups or more. Those people are the slow metabolizers. Slow, as in slow caffeine metabolizing. It’s your liver enzymes that do this. They either function well at breaking down that caffeine molecule or they are not so hot at it. Regardless, every regular caffeine customer develops a certain tolerance. Adenosine receptors in your brain are the arbitrators of your habit.

What I really want to do is save everyone a lot of money and perhaps reduce some caloric intake at the same time. Now that I think about it. I want to reduce coffee spills, carbon footprints, coffee breath, yellow teeth and all this worry about coffee farmers and how they were paid. If you buy energy drinks, supplements or coffee creations from coffee shops, buy some caffeine pills instead. Someone get me some recipes for caffeine too. I couldn’t find anything interesting in my short google search. Buy store brand caffeine pills and break the big ones in half. You can get your five hour jones for less than 10 cents! I don’t mind the yellow color of the tablet either.